John Sheeran discusses how the 2025 Cincinnati Bengals mirror the Bengals from 2005.
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00:00The Bengals have been busy telling us how they expect to win games this season and it would
00:03actually match how they put together one of their better seasons in franchise history. So in this
00:08video I'll explain what the vision of the 2025 Bengals really is. Hi again Bengals fans, John
00:17Sheeran of A to Z Sports Cincinnati here and I've been thinking more and more about the vision of
00:22this Bengals team. Not necessarily the end goal, right? The goal is obviously very simple. It's
00:27make it back to the playoffs and win a Super Bowl for the first time in franchise history. It's not
00:31just about what you're trying to do but how they're trying to do it. And it seems relatively simple,
00:37right? They put their money where their mouth is at least on the offensive side of the ball
00:40by paying both Jamar Chase and Tee Higgins and continuing to surround Joe Burrow with elite
00:45weapons and take advantage of his, you know, elite play at quarterback. And on the defensive side of
00:49the ball the message has been it's not necessarily about a lack of talent there but a lack of direction
00:54and proper coaching that meshes with the overall youth of the group. So that's who the Bengals are
00:59right now. They are a proven fire-powered offense built around superstars with a defense that is
01:04hungry and motivated to be at least a little bit better than where they were last year thanks to
01:09the direction of a lot of new coaches and a new defensive coordinator and now Golden. And when
01:13thinking more and more about this it got me thinking about are there any past Bengals teams in
01:17franchise history who were either built like this or had to win in a certain way that these Bengals would
01:23have to win in order to get better than where they were the last two years. And it's honestly so fitting
01:27that in the year 2025 you can go back exactly 20 years ago to find another Bengals team that best fits
01:33this description. And for the long-time Bengals fans watching you know exactly which team I'm talking
01:37about the 2005 Bengals. At this time two decades ago the Bengals had not been back to the playoffs
01:43since the beginning of the 1990s. It was a lost decade obviously and then Marvin Lewis came in
01:48in the beginning of the 2000s and he put together an offense that was built to compete with any team
01:53in the league. In 2005 you had Carson Palmer quarterback Chad Johnson and T.J. Hushmanzada
01:58wide receivers all entering their primes all having just been paid by the Bengals and under contract for
02:03the foreseeable future. Palmer ended up leaving the league in completion percentage and passing
02:06touchdowns. Johnson was the first team all pro and had one of the best seasons of his career
02:10and Hushmanzada was a very strong number two receiver despite missing a handful of games. If those
02:14aren't exact parallels to Joe Burrow, Jamar Chase, and T. Higgins I don't know what are and I would
02:19be remiss if I didn't mention that Rudy Johnson ran the ball over 300 times and over 1,400 yards and
02:2412 touchdowns and didn't even make a pro bowl by the way. But that passing game was truly elite behind
02:28a really good offensive line and it's what carried the team more times than not. They were second behind
02:32only the Indianapolis Colts in the prime of Peyton Manning's career in terms of offensive drives that
02:36ended up in scores. They were fourth in both yards per play and points per game. They were an elite
02:40offense through and through. Defensively it was a completely different story and quite
02:44frankly at times a more entertaining story. The 2005 Bengals defense lived and died by creating
02:51turnovers. 20 years have gone by since then and still to this day only seven other defenses since
02:562000 forced more turnovers than the 44 that the Bengals forced in 2005. 23% of the drives teams had
03:05against the Bengals ended up in a turnover. That's basically one in four. They couldn't sack the
03:09quarterback. They couldn't stop the run. They were giving up explosive plays in the passing game.
03:12Everything was bad except for the frequency in which they got their hands on the ball. And this
03:17even more so than the clear direct parallels to the offense is why I'm thinking about the 2005 Bengals
03:23when looking at the 2025 Bengals. Because there's been a common theme and message with this defense
03:28ever since Golden took over in late January. Forcing more turnovers. Forcing more turnovers is one of the
03:34very first points of emphasis that Golden listed out after he was introduced as DC saying quote,
03:39our number one job is to support our quarterback and people are like, what does that mean? We've
03:44got to go get the ball. That's our number one job. Give him opportunities. And how is that
03:49translating in practices? Well, let's fast forward five months and ask linebacker Logan Wilson saying
03:53quote, they're practicing forcing turnovers more than they did in previous seasons. The biggest thing
03:58is turnovers. Get the ball back as much as we can. Pretty much every day in some form or fashion,
04:03we practice it. Turnovers when you're getting the ball really just boil down to two different kinds,
04:07there's just interceptions and there's fumbles, but there's a variety of ways in which you can
04:11achieve either of those outcomes. Tip passes that become interceptions, strip sacks, punching the
04:15ball out, whatever you can do to go get the ball and give the offense even more possessions to put up
04:20more points on the board. That seems to be the number one goal of this defense, even if it's not
04:25the most talented or well-constructed of any in the league. The 05 Bengals won 11 games that season.
04:30They won the AFC North. They hosted a playoff game that they unfortunately lost primarily because
04:35Carson Palmer went down with a knee injury on the very first play. But what if Palmer didn't get
04:39injured? That offense was still firing on all cylinders and there was a very good chance that
04:43they could have done some damage in the postseason and may have made it to the Super Bowl. They could
04:47put up points and they could prevent the defense from putting up just as many because they kept
04:50taking the ball away. And that is the exact vision of the Bengals exactly two decades later.
04:55An obvious coincidence to be sure, but it's better to know how you need to win with a flawed roster
05:00than a stacked roster with no vision at all. The Bengals seem to believe that they do have a vision
05:04and recent history would suggest that they may have a point.